First Light

The files shouldn’t exist. Officially, they were purged—scrubbed from public record in the quiet aftermath of an inquiry that asked the right questions and buried the answers. But buried isn’t gone.
What he found in that archive wasn’t just evidence of corruption. It was the architecture of a system designed to fail the people at the bottom while the top profited from the wreckage. Now he has the paper trail. And for the first time in a long time, the anger has somewhere to go.
Technical & Visual Direction: 
For this keyframe, the goal was to use optical characteristics to reinforce the narrative weight. I set up the camera in Blender to simulate an anamorphic lens—pushing the lens distortion directly in 3D to create a subtle "closing in" effect around the character, heightening the claustrophobia and tension in the scene. 

Blender: 3D scene assembly, volumetric morning light, anamorphic camera setup, and optical lens distortion. 

Affinity Photo: Final color grading, tonal balance, and detail pass to polish the render.